Revolutions on Trial

AN ANONYMOUS LETTER ADDRESSED TO M. MOLAR - 28 AUGUST 1789 Dear Sirs: General, Intendant, the Government, Advisers, and other individuals, we know that we are free and that you are aware that rebellious people are resisting the orders of the king. Well, remember that we ne`gres are numerous, and we want to die for this liberty; for we want it and plan to get it at whatever price, even with the use of mortars, cannons, and ri es. Why, for how how many hundreds of years, have our fathers been subjected to this fate that still falls on us? Did God create anyone as a slave? The sky and the earth belong to the lord God, along with everything they contain; you have corrupted our ancestors, not only them, but also their descendants. Isn’t this horrible, sirs? It must be believed in truth that you are very inhumane not to be touched with compassion for the su ering that we endure. Even the most barbarous of nations would melt into tears if it knew our misery. I will let you think for awhile about how quickly it would seek to abolish such an odious law. But in the ned, it is in vain that we seek to convince you by invoking sentiments and humanity, for you have none; but by using blows we will have it, for we see that this is the only way to get anywhere. It will start soon if this prejudice is not entirely annihilated...there will be torrents of blood owing as powerful as the gutters that ow along our streets. Sirs, fl fl ff fl We have the honor of being Signed by us, Ne`gres HAITI 1804 ACT OF INDEPENDENCE Today, January 1, 1804, the General in Chief of the Indigenous Army, accompanied by generals and army chiefs convoked in order to take measures tending to the happiness of the country: After having made known to the assembled generals his true intention of forever ensuring to the natives of Haiti a stable government — the object of his greatest solicitude, which he did in a speech that made known to foreign powers the resolution to render the country independent, and to enjoy the liberty consecrated by the blood of the people of this island; and, after having gathered their opinions, asked each of the assembled generals to pronounce a vow to forever renounce France; to die rather than to live under its domination; and to ght for independence with their last breath.The generals, imbued with these sacred principles, after having with one voice given their adherence to the well manifested project of independence, have all sworn before eternity and before the entire universe to forever renounce France and to die rather than live under its domination. Signed: fi Dessalines General-in-Chief LETTER FROM THE SLAVES OF MARTINIQUE - 29 AUGUST 1789 Great General: The entire Nation of the Black Slaves very humbly begs your august person to accept its respectful homage and to cast a humanitarian eye on the re ections it takes the liberty of presenting to you. We are not unaware, Great General, of all the negative things that have been presented to you about us; we are painted in such a foul way that even the most solidly virtuous person would have reason to turn against us; but God, who sooner or later always stops the proud plans of men, this God who is so just knows what is deep inside us; he knows that we have never had any project but to patiently accept the oppression of our persecutors. This eternal God, who could no longer su er so much persecution, must have given Louis XVI, the greatest of monarchs, the charge of delivering all the miserable Christians oppressed by their unjust fellow men.... We have just learned with extreme desperation that the mulattos, far from taking care of their enslaved mothers, brothers, and sisters, have dared claim that we do not deserve to enjoy, as they do, the bene ts that come from peace and liberty and are incapable of continuing the hard work that supports the merchants of the white nation and cannot provide any service to the state. This is a great absurdity, and this vile action must demonstrate to you the baseness of spirit of this proud nation and make you see the hate, the jealousy, and all the horror of the disdain this nation has for us....It is not jealousy that forces us to complain about the mulattos, but the harshness they have shown in creating a plan for liberty for only themselves, when we are all of the same family. We do not know, Great General, if you have received the request of the mulattos, but you will receive it soon, and we are happy if we have the good fortune to have reached you before it.... We end our re ections by declaring to you that the entire Nation of Black Slaves united together has a single wish, a singly desire for independence, and all the slaves with a unanimous voice send out only one cry, one clamor to reclaim the liberty they have gained through centuries of su ering and ignominious servitude. This is no longer a Nation that is blinded by ignorance and that trembles at the threat of the lightest punishments; its su ering has enlightened it and has determined it to spill to its last drop of blood rather than support the yoke of slavery, a horrible yoke attacked by the laws, by humanity, and by all of nature, by the Divinity and by our good King Louis XVI. We hope it will be condemned by the illustrious [Governor] Viome’nil. Your response, Great General, will decide our destiny and that of the colony. Please send it to the parish priests who will inform us about it at the announcements at the end of mass. We await it with the greatest impatience, but without leaving behind the respect that is due to your dignity, and the Nation asks you to believe it to be, [Great] Grand General, your most humble and obedient servant. Signed, fl ff ff ff fi fl The Entire Nation SLAVES LETTERS TO THE GOVERNOR 1789 fi In July 1789, in the French colony of Martinique, the rst of what would be many slave revolts began. Prompted by events taking place in France, the slaves of Martinique began to feel more hopeful about the chances of their liberation. In particular, the calling of the Estates-General and growing abolitionist activity in France prompted some slaves into action. Furthermore, rumours began to circulate that the slaves had actually already been liberated, but that local authorities were working to keep the news from reaching them. In the letters below, slaves of Martinique voice their determination to achieve liberty and independence for themselves, reminding the authorities that they have little to lose and everything to gain. The Slaves Although the slaves are not the class in the population which immediately follows the whites, it seems natural to speak of them before taking up the freedmen. After all, the latter offer the combined product of the slavery of the one and of the liberty of the other. The point made about the white population, that is not entirely made up of Creoles, ought to be repeated for the slaves, since two-thirds of these latter . . . came from Africa, while the balance were born in the Colony. Thus, we must speak separately of these two classes, which in certain respects have traits which make them more or less distinct. The island of Santo Domingo was the rst part of the Americas to have African slaves. No one forgets that they were introduced as labourers as a result of the advice of Bartolemé de las Casas. Las Casas had seen some of them who were brought by chance to Santo Domingo after 1505. He proposed to substitute such persons for the natives of the island, for whom the work in the mines had meant very cruel hardships and had seemed likely to destroy them entirely. . . . The idea of Las Casas, who was led astray by his very humanity, was adopted. This was really because it presented a new chance for human greed. The unfortunate Indians were pretty nearly all mowed down, anyway. All the French Colonies in the Antilles had African slaves from the start. The Island of Santo Domingo already had them, since its rst conquerors had possessed them at that time for nearly a century and a half. . . . It would be easy to believe that during the beginnings of the efforts of the Adventurers, they carried off some negroes . . . from their enemies and that it was only in devoting themselves to agriculture that they had a real need for Africans. They were to be seen for quite a long period cultivating with their own hands, in association with a sort of white slave called "Engagé" or "Thirty-Six Months." These names expressed their servile state and its length. The Engagés The Engagés were Frenchmen who were wracked by a wish to try their luck in the Colonies. They sold themselves for a term of years, usually three, to a ship captain who would bring them overseas and sell their contracts to a colonist. . . . This arrangement, remarkably enough, was rst introduced by the English in their North American Colonies, where it still exists today, despite their independence. Indentured service could not survive in the French islands, however. It was only until the time when tobacco was the chief and just about the only product of colonial trade, that the indentured servants were found suitable for the same employment as the blacks. But the raising of indigo and especially of sugar cane implacably demanded men more capable of standing the continual effect of the hot sun. Also, this crop . . . offered ample earnings with which to pay for the Negroes whom merchants were having sent from Africa. . . . The number of slaves kept on increasing. . . . It has now risen to 452,000. The indentured servants, who had continued to be transported—in very small numbers—and whom the laws several times boldly directed the ship owners to bring over free of charge . . . became merely foremen to the gangs of blacks. It could be added, however, that the memory of these white bondsmen helped to hold down the pride of the other white men, who by their disdainful airs forced those whose pride was injured to look up their backgrounds in self-defense. . . . fi What is most remarkable and what is the least affected by the sea change that has occurred, is the black's careless nature. Call it perhaps thoughtlessness, so general in the negro character. . .. fi fi 1797 “THE SLAVES FROM AFRICA” Africa Slaves From this it is no step at all to indolence, which is the favorite state of the Negro Lacking any education, left wholly prey to his prejudices and to all the terrors of ignorance, he is feeble and fearful, however much he may affect to scorn physical dangers. In fact, he scorns them precisely because his imagination fails to rise to the dangers. The Africans transplanted to Saint Domingue remain in general indolent and idle, quarrelsome and talkative, and liars, and are addicted to stealing. Always given to the most absurd superstitions, there is nothing which does not frighten them more or less. Incapable of analyzing religious ideas intellectually, they turn all their belief to external manifestations. If they go to church, they mumble some prayers which they have half learned, or indeed they fall asleep. . . . Baptism Now the Creole blacks claim that they are greatly superior to the African blacks—because they have been baptized. Such baptized ones are called "Bossals," a name used throughout Spanish America. The Africans, whom the Creole blacks address insultingly as "horses" [apparently meaning horses as stupid beasts of burden], are very eager to be baptized themselves. At certain days, such as Holy Saturday and the Saturday of Pentecost, when adults are baptized, the blacks go to be sure to have a sponsoring "godfather" and "godmother." Even these, in fact, may be arranged for after they get there. They thus receive the rst sacrament of the Christians and are guaranteed against any injury addressed to non-baptized persons. The Creoles always refer to them contemptuously as "baptized standing up" [i.e., not held in the mother's arms]. The respect which the Africans have for their new godfathers and godmothers is pushed so far that they act as if they were their own fathers and mothers. To curse another person's godmother, by the way, is like in icting the most bloody injury upon him, and if the two parties ever after come to understand and tolerate each other, it is at best after long quarrels. The most grave offence, which seems to be a tradition in the kingdom of Angola, is to make derogatory remarks about the morals of the mother as well as the godmother. To this, the injured party responds with offences of the most bizarre type, often crying out: "He has insulted me, but he hasn't dared to curse my godmother." Such an incident may well arouse the attention of the masters, for on a plantation it is not uncommon for a black who abuses his godfather to be ordered helped by a new arrival. This increases his own work, if the new man is not suf ciently acclimated [or is ill] . . . because he has to do the work of both. Blacks who share the same godparent by the way, frequently call each other "brothers" and "sisters." Magic and Sorcery fi fl fi The Negroes believe certain days unlucky. They will never begin an important undertaking on Friday, for instance. If one of the blacks hits his right foot against something, he doesn't mind, because it is the good foot, but if it is the left, that is bad. If he hits this foot against someone, that person must be given a little kick with the right foot. He calls that "giving back some foot." But what irritates him most is to see a broom touch some portion of his body. He at once asked if people think he is dead and he remains convinced that this shortens his life. The Negroes belief in magic and the power of their fetishes follow them from overseas. The more absurd the tale, the more appealing it is to them. Rough little gures of wood or stone, representing men or animals, for them are the authors of supernatural things. They call them "bodyguards." There are many Negroes who acquire an absolute power over others by such [superstitious] means. They take advantage of their credulity to win money, power, and pleasures of all kinds, even sexual pleasures. This sort of subjection of one African to another is all the less surprising if you consider the following statement: that among the blacks shipped to America fully one-forth of those sold into slavery in their home areas were ones convicted of being sorcerers! . . . The crime of poisoning, by the way, is also said to cause many, many sentences of deportation from the African kingdoms, [but] these monsters who devote their effort to killing their fellows are not as common in the colonies as was long credited. . . . Probably many deaths which supposedly were the result of poisoning were really the product of physical or climatic circumstances. It is also true, however, that some of the elderly African slaves profess this vicious art. . . . With the Negroes as with all non-civilized peoples . . . gestures or signs are many and form a basic part of their language. The blacks love above all else to use imitative sounds. If they speak of a cannon shot, they add "boom," a musket shot, "poum," a slap, "pam," a kick or block of a stick, "bam," a whip, "v'lap, v'lap." Did one fall lightly, it is "bap," heavily, it is "boom," for tumbling down, "blou coutoum"; and whenever one wishes to give a sound an augmentive force, it is "loin, loin, loin," which expresses a great distance, etc. The blacks love proverbs and sayings. The latter are often very moral. After a wrong deed, they commonly say in repentance: "Ah, if I had but known." The blacks have derived from that their proverb: "If I had only known. Never the stick! You can always read it on my behind!" [i.e. afterwards!] to indicate that they had not taken thought until it was too late. Man-Woman Relationships All the negroes born in Africa are polygamous in Saint Domingue—and jealous. Marriages are very uncommon and the most religious of the white masters are practically obliged to give up trying to push them to marry. This would only be a scandal, anyway! The in uence of their primitive customs and the very disproportion in the number of women to men, of which the rst form hardly a half [sic] are very logical causes of this pluralism. The climate also favors it. fi fi fl fi The black men treat very harshly the women who were unfaithful or whom they suspect of unfaithfulness, and it is to the latter that the bad treatment comes. This is so even though the men don't feel too badly about being disloyal to their women. The women have ts of jealously, but such reactions are limited by their fear of irritating their men too much. Unfortunate is the man whose mistress is too strong for him, however, for he must worry about something more than threats. In general, the African women accustomed to polygamous husbands, however, are not furious in their reaction to their man's conduct. It is also somewhat common to see several wives of one man living together in a sort of harmony, although they all love the same one. Privately, the women call each other "seaman," from the old libustering usage, for the libusters formed societies whose members all called each other that. Among the women, it may be added, whether in the polygamous sector or elsewhere, it is common to form a sort of league against the men. Without loving them, and hardly knowing them, they substitute for each other [in bed] when it is a question of fooling the lover. . . . A very distinctive quality of the African women is their invincible preference for the negro men. Neither their behavior with the whites, nor the advantages which that brings them, even the freedom so often resulting—for themselves or for their children—can hold them back. . . . Nor can their concern about the punishment that white pride and jealousy can make so severe. The women put up a long ght, or more or less happily hide this inclination, but their preference for black men wins in the end. . . . This is proved by the public choice, which they always make, of a negro man, when some happening returns them to their own race, destroying their close relation with the whites. Their common mental processes and language, the perfect equality between them, the familiarity which stems from that and which is not the smallest charm of love, are no doubt the chief causes of this tendency. It is also forti ed by their primitive education. Perhaps, further, and I have heard several negresses avow it, the advantages which nature—or the use of palm wine—has given to the negro men over other men in what is the physical agent of love, has a great in uence on this choice, for which, in any case, the white is only a puny competitor. Interpreters, Mirrors, and Watches What it is necessary also to speak of is the pride of the negro women in being considered Creoles or native-born, even though that is not true. The men have the same attitude. Both aim at least to be regarded as having come to the Colony when very young. One result of this is a refusal, generally, to act as interpreters for newcomers who are of their own African tribe. They use the pretext that they have forgotten the language. It is one of the inconsequences of life that the Africans . . . often refer to others who came over on the same ship as "shipmates"—which gives them away. fi fi fi fi fl Self-esteem of a different sort is the reason for refusing, quite obstinately, to give details of the customs of their particular country. This is especially so if the white person questioning them lets it be seen that he is amused at what is told. The only Africans who will speak freely are those who arrived when very old, or those talking to white children. In such cases, it is apparent that they loved everything about the old country—the mountains, the trees, the honey bees, the crocodiles, and so on. When the slaves come off the ship they are not greatly surprised at the various natural products of the island. These are all too similar to what they knew in Africa. But almost all the manufactured objects surprise them. Most striking to them are the mirrors and the re ections they produce. The negro looks at a mirror, feels the glass, and runs around back to try to nd the other copy of himself. Finally convinced of the uselessness of these efforts . . . he performs a thousand antics and makes a thousand faces, trying to imitate the other person. It is a phenomenon which nobody can explain to him. A watch is also puzzling. He at rst supposes that there is an animal making it work. There are negroes to whom red wine causes a lively horror the rst time one is given any. He thinks the wine is blood and he fears the terrors he felt when on the voyage come back to him. Yet he likes the intoxication it brings. Ere long, he prefers the "ta a," of which he is excessively fond, because it is more powerful. fi fl fi fi fi It remains to be said that the above comments apply also, equally, to the Creole blacks. But let us go on to discuss what is especially true of the latter. MEMOIR OF GENERAL TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE WRITTEN BY HIMSELF fi First published: by M. Saint Remy in Mémoires de la Vie de Toussaint L'Ouverture, translated and published in English for the rst time in Toussaint L'Ouverture: A Biography and Autobiography by J. R. Beard, 1863; TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE 1801 CONSTITUTION FOR NAPOLEON HAYTI 1805 CONSTITUTION CODE NOIR 1697 Beginning in 1697, Haiti was a French colony with the name Saint Domingue. By the second half of the 18th century, it was the most wealth-producing colony in the world, exporting sugar, coffee and indigo to France. Enslaved men, women and children produced this wealth under an incredibly violent system of slavery, regulated and legitimated under Louis XIV’s Code Noir. The death rate among the enslaved was so high that the French constantly imported new captives to work the plantations. At any one time, about two-thirds of the enslaved population had been born in Africa. Haitians, by contrast, forced one of the most powerful European empires in the 18th century to abolish slavery and then protected that abolition by declaring independence. Haitian revolutionaries were the architects of France’s 1793 and ’94 abolition and they founded an abolitionist state in the Americas in 1804.